1. What are the types of Medical Research?

• Basic science research, Clinical research, and Translational (Bench to Bedside + Clinical trials to Population-based implementation) research

2. What are the types of Clinical Research?

• Clinical research is a component of medical and health research intended to produce knowledge valuable for understanding human disease, preventing and treating illness, and promoting health. It is broadly divided into the original study (observational and clinical trials) and non-original study (reviews and case-reports).

• Original research is usually an observational study, interventional study, or meta-analysis of observational studies or clinical trials. Any study with a definite research hypothesis, methods, analysis planning, data collection, and results is considered as the original study. In comparison to that, non-original studies are the studies lacking a definite research methodology and analysis, eg bibliometric study/literature review, case reports, letter to the editor, etc.

4. What are the publications and types of different medical publications? 

• From the highest value to down the list, Peer-reviewed Original Article [Manuscript, Brief article (short communication), Research letter, and peer-reviewed conference oral and poster presentations/abstract], Peer-reviewed Non-original Article [Narrative/bibliometric Review article, Case report, and Letter to Editor], and Non-peer reviewed publications.

5. What is the difference between the conference abstract and the manuscript?

• The abstract is a brief report (300 words) on a specific research topic that can be presented at national/international medical conferences in oral, moderated poster, or poster presentation session, and most of the peer-reviewed abstracts are published in the supplement issue of the society’s journal and appeared on Google Scholar.
• The manuscript is a full-length article (2000-4000 words-depends on the type) consist of Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and other project-related details and is published in the journals.

6. What are the peer-review conferences students, residents, and fellow usually plan to attend to present their project?

• Depending on the specialty, physicians-in-training presents their work at conferences and annual meetings like American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions, Hypertension, International Stroke Conference, American Medical Association, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Digestive Disease Week, American Society of Hematology, American Academy of Neurology, American Neurological Association, American Academy of Family Medicine, Society of General Internal Medicine, United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology, etc.

7. What is the standard time duration of a project?

• For an original research project, it takes 3-4 months to submit and another total 4-5 months to get published.

8. How does a publication process work?

• Finalizing the project -> Research proposal writting -> Documentations -> Data collection -> Analysis -> Writing and revising draft -> (Submission & Presentation of findings at appropriate Meeting/Conference) -> Submission manuscript to journal -> Editorial rejection / Editorial acceptance -> Reviewers rejection / Major changes / Minor changes / Acceptance -> (Rejected submission to other journal) -> Changes in accepted submissions -> Pre-print editing -> Copy rights transfer -> In-press -> Publication -> Celebration & Reward yourself -> New Beginning

9. What type of skills and statistical tools should the students know about in order to execute a clinical research project?

• Few important skills like research proposal writing, data understanding and collection, analytical skill, presentation of data (table and graphs), writing and citing skill, submission & publication skills. Analytical tools available are SPSS, SAS, R, RevMan, CMA, OpenMetaAnalyst, etc.

10. What is the basic research training we are providing during our courses?

• Types of publications and databases, Hypothesis generation from your ideas, literature review, understanding datasets, design methodology, analysis data with different tools, interpretation of data, abstract and manuscript writing using various tools, the submission process in various conferences and journals, create oral and poster presentations, Research & application/CV, and research-related questions for residency interviews.

11. What is the difference between PubMed indexed and Non-PubMed indexed publications?

• PubMed is the search engine like any other search engine Scopus, MedLine, EMBASE, Google Scholar, etc. where journals are registered so all volumes and issues of different journals, one can find out at one place. So one can use the analogy of a library (PubMed or Scopus) with different books (journals) in it. Journals indexed with PubMed and non-PubMed have the same values if they can create a digital object identifier (DOI) for articles.

12. Role of research in residency matching and how will research help after being a resident?

• Clinical research plays a very crucial role after USMLE scores and US clinical experience in the residency MATCH process. USMLE scores are not possible to change and USCE has a limitation after having certain months and will disappear from your CV once you MATCH or get a job, but research education/skills and publications will be with you throughout your career and help you not only to MATCH in RESIDENCY but also in the desired FELLOWSHIP. Research is the only thing which you can keep doing every year until you MATCH and improve your CV, while doing a job, once your CV gets saturated with scores and USCE. These skills will also be helpful while working in an academic setting, applying for grants, aiming for academic success, and while applying for non-residency-related research jobs (research coordinator/assistant).

13. What type of projects usually a resident or fellow plan during their training?

• Residents and fellows usually work on observational and/or quality improvement studies (retrospective and cross-sectional) and meta-analysis besides doing traditional literature reviews and case studies.

14. What is the cost of publication or executing a project and how do the research grant, funding, and budgeting work?

• Usually, the cost of execution and/or publication varies depends on the size and resources needed during the process. While budgeting a project, you may keep in mind of cost of data collection & storage, analysis & analytical tools, laboratory & device costs (if any), and article processing and editing costs (APC) if going for an open-access journal.